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I don't know about you guys but most times when I am making a checklist for our Epcot day, it doesn't include: 1) Get stuck on attraction; 2) Almost pee on self; 3) Chase down bouncing tooth; 4) Reattach tooth; 5) Sprinkle tushy with automatic toilet. But, apparently, that's how our Epcot Checklist was looking on our 24th wedding anniversary

So, we've checked off numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and we're on our way to World Showcase. Not without first stopping at Mouse Gears for a look around. I don't remember if we even bought anything at Mouse Gears but I do remember taking pictures with our cellphone of different things and sending them to Lacey. Since she didn't come along on this trip (or the previous year), we wanted to buy her something and mail it to her. We'd take the picture, send it to her and she'd text back saying "like it" or "not so much".

I gotta tell you, we're not really the kind of people who do the whole, "hey try on that hat and let me take a picture and we'll put it back", kind of people. But, somehow that's what happened this trip:

Next up on the checklist was Mexico. Hunter spotted a marionette of a Mexican man and bought it. Nice, cheap souvenir. We like to pick up prepackaged snack items in each of the countries and save them to eat while watching Illuminations. In Mexico, we bought some lime flavored candies. We rode the newest version of the boat ride and watched Donald's trip through Mexico. Outside of Mexico, we spotted Donald and one of the three cabelleros and stopped for a picture. Of course, this is one of the missing pics.

While Hunter and I stood in line for Donald, John got a frozen margarita, a churro and a Sprite. All three hit the spot especially since I didn't finish my burger. You know.....popped out tooth and all.

As we are enjoying our snack, we make our way around World Showcase. In China, we watched the acrobats doing their plate spinning, body twisting show. Amazing! We bought a honeydew melon snack cake and continued on.

In Norway, we rode Maelstorm and giggled when the ride got stuck for a few minutes. Not again! At least this time I didn't have to go potty. I can't remember exactly what snack we bought in Norway.

Of course, we had to stop and take a picture of a troll:

The pictures that I took walking from Norway to Japan are gone with the exception of this one and it's a pretty crappy picture:

We did pick up our prepackaged snacks in the countries and stashed them in the backpack for our Illuminations "tasting".

When we got to Japan, we knew what we had to do.....buy a sword. For the last three years, Hunter has bought a sword in Epcot. He saves his money all year long and it's the first thing he buys. After that's done, he'll spend whatever money he has left over later in the trip.

After asking the castmember to take just about every sword they had out of the display cases, he ended up with this one. Sorry the lighting is bad but the windows had a yellowish tint to them and the pictures always seem to come out looking like this.

When you buy a "real" sword at Disney, you don't get to take it home with you right away. You have to place an order and they'll ship it to you. This year the sword was waiting on us when we got home!

Oh, in Japan, we bought shrimp flavored potato chips.

We left Japan and continued on around World Showcase picking up snacks and looking in every nook and cranny the countries had to offer. I was chosen to participate in the street show in France. I had to sit in a chair and then I had to hold a rope and then they asked me if I wanted to climb on top of the balancing chairs. I don't think so!!!!!

We had anniversary dinner reservations at the Rose & Crown and, by the time we made it there, it was still about an hour before our ADR so we kept on walking and went on to Canada. They had honey flavored suckers and those went into our snack stash too.

It was nearing our ADR time so we backtracked to the Rose & Crown but not before we made a pitstop. I've learned my lesson.

We checked in and had a wait of about ten minutes before our beeper went off. Hunter waiting:

I knew that you could request outside seating but they wouldn't guarantee it. We were very happy when they told us we had patio seating. But, we were seated next to the building and the awning would block the view of the higher Illuminations fireworks. Our very nice waitress said there was a special viewing area just to the side of the patio that would be roped off for the Rose & Crown patrons.

John's appetizer. I am sorry I don't remember the name. It was a cold crab salad. Not super good but not bad either.

I ordered the potato and leek soup and it was so delish that I ate it all without taking a picture.

For our entrees, I had the tamarind glazed pork loin with potatoes.

John ordered the Bangers and Mash:

And, Hunter ordered the fish and chips which were super greasy and mushy.

For dessert, Hunter ordered just a dish of plain vanilla ice cream. No picture.

I ordered the cake with sticky toffee pudding. The cake was a bit dry but the pudding was good.

John ordered the Bailey's Irish something or other. It was sooo strong that you could smell it when they sat it down on the table. John only finished half of it.

I've got to admit we weren't impressed with the Rose & Crown at all. Everything was really bland and had no real flavor to it. But, we are from Louisiana where it's all about hot sauce, spices and gravies. We won't be making any ADRs at the Rose & Crown anytime soon.

After we were done with our meal, our waitress told us we could go over to the roped off area any time we were ready. One last sip of our tea and off we went to wait on Illuminations to start. We were some of the first ones in the area so we had a really good place right next to the wall. The roped off section wasn't very large so we were packed in there like sardines by the time Illuminations began. Here are some pictures I took. Sorry they aren't so great but I was still figuring out how to operate the semi-new camera:

Since we had just eaten and didn't have a good place to spread out our snack goodies we found around World Showcase, we decided to save them for another evening. We found a nearby bench and people watched while the exodus of crowds made their way towards Future World. After about 45 minutes, we decided to get our lazy behinds up and go that way too. I took this picture during the walk:

When we got to Future World, the crowds were still exiting the parks in great numbers so we plopped down again near the great big ball...Spaceship Earth.

It was then that we realized we didn't ever get back to ride the newest version. Oh well, an excuse to come back next year. Like we need one.

I tried to take Hunter's picture with his marionette and one turned out like a shadow but I thought it was kinda cool.

John's friend, Mark, calls him all the time to "talk" about what's going on at the cabinet shop John used to work at. And they say women like to gossip. It always seems like when we go out of town somewhere, Mark calls. Once, we were at a huge flea market in Texas and Mark called. Another time, we were camping in Arkansas and Mark called. Another time, we went to Baton Rouge and Mark called. Another time, we were in Georgia visiting Lacey and Mark called. You get the idea. So it's a running joke with John and Mark....don't you guys ever stay home? As we are resting our tootsies and letting the crowds pass us by, who calls? You got it! Mark!

After John's chat with Mark, we decided to walk on over to the bus stop and ride back to the CBR.

What an eventful first day at Walt Disney World and a romantic 24th wedding anniversary!

Great update, as usual. Glad there were no more incidents with that tooth!

Question: At the Rose & Crown, were there no characters? For some reason, I was thinking there were characters here.

Also, I'm glad that you got to see Illuminations. I've been three times as an adult (went lots of times as a child, but I don't think they had this show way back then) and cannot seem to get there on time. We were standing line for the character meet & greet in March and by the time I got out of there, I'd missed the whole thing! I was sorely disappointed, I tell you!

I haven't seen Fantasmic yet either in DHS. Since they only run it on certain nights now, I missed it too because we weren't visiting on the right days. Bummer.

Well, there's always next year! Can't wait to hear more. I was looking at your pictures and I noticed two things: you and your son really look a lot alike, and secondly, you are so TINY!

Oh my goodness your trip report is fun. Very impressive that you kept the surprise and I adore the reaction! I hope to pull off a surprise trip, of any kind, to anywhere lol, for our 2 younger ones one of these days.

Your tooth! Your poor poor tooth! Reminds me of a time a good friend was over and wanting to borrow a dress. She was trying things on and would hold the hangar with her teeth to rezip something she was putting back on the hangar. She had veneers and one of her front tooth's veneer popped off!

She was borrowing a dress for a formal that evening so needless to say she was panicked. You handled your situation with humor and quick thinking, very impressive!

I truly dislike the self flushing toilets. Re-gluing a tooth or not...sometimes you might need to sit there a little while and there is nothing worse than getting sprayed when you aren't done! You are quite the trooper.

You have however reinforced that I have no desire to try Rose and Crown.

Great update, as usual. Glad there were no more incidents with that tooth!

Question: At the Rose & Crown, were there no characters? For some reason, I was thinking there were characters here.

Also, I'm glad that you got to see Illuminations. I've been three times as an adult (went lots of times as a child, but I don't think they had this show way back then) and cannot seem to get there on time. We were standing line for the character meet & greet in March and by the time I got out of there, I'd missed the whole thing! I was sorely disappointed, I tell you!

I haven't seen Fantasmic yet either in DHS. Since they only run it on certain nights now, I missed it too because we weren't visiting on the right days. Bummer.

Well, there's always next year! Can't wait to hear more. I was looking at your pictures and I noticed two things: you and your son really look a lot alike, and secondly, you are so TINY!

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I, too, was glad that there were no more mishaps on this day. At dinner time, I didn't bite down on anything with my front teeth. I pulled my bread apart and I cut my meat into little pieces just in case. I did have my trusty super glue handy though.

The Rose & Crown isn't a character meal. Like I said, we weren't overly impressed but at least we can say we tried it.

We love Illuminations and it's a not to be missed on our list of things to do. (which doesn't include: 1) get stuck on attraction; 2) pee on one self, etc. etc. ) We usually spend two days in Epcot and it doesn't bother us if we miss seeing it on one of those days. On this trip, we had just one day in Epcot so we had to make the time.

I planned our whole 2009 trip around Fantasmic because it is only showing on certain days. It's also on our must sees.

Both of my kids started off looking like their daddy. A lot like their daddy but as they get older, they are looking more and more like me. Bless their punkin' hearts. I have always been little but right before this trip, I lost 18 pounds. It wasn't because I wanted to though.

You'll remember that I said I changed jobs. It was super stressful on me because I had worked for the same firm for 25 years and I considered the people there my family. But, I knew that something wasn't right when certain things started happening around the office and I kept hearing bits and pieces of telephone conversations. After a couple of anonymous calls made by a certain someone (insert...me) to certain offices (you can probably figure out who to insert), I found out that a certain Uncle (he wants you) was gonna come a knockin' on the office door real soon and it wasn't going to be pleasant. After many weeks of counseling at our church, discussions with my husband and many sleepless nights, I knew I had to get out of there or I was going down with the ship too. Hey I ain't the captain! I just swab the deck! So, I jumped overboard! Since the change in jobs, I have gained back the 18 pounds and am back to my old self.

Anywhoo! Sorry for the sob story but sometimes, I still get sad and p.o.'d about the whole thing and I have to vent.

Oh my goodness your trip report is fun. Very impressive that you kept the surprise and I adore the reaction! I hope to pull off a surprise trip, of any kind, to anywhere lol, for our 2 younger ones one of these days.

Your tooth! Your poor poor tooth! Reminds me of a time a good friend was over and wanting to borrow a dress. She was trying things on and would hold the hangar with her teeth to rezip something she was putting back on the hangar. She had veneers and one of her front tooth's veneer popped off!

She was borrowing a dress for a formal that evening so needless to say she was panicked. You handled your situation with humor and quick thinking, very impressive!

I truly dislike the self flushing toilets. Re-gluing a tooth or not...sometimes you might need to sit there a little while and there is nothing worse than getting sprayed when you aren't done! You are quite the trooper.

You have however reinforced that I have no desire to try Rose and Crown.

Looking forward to more...

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I'm glad you decided to join in the fun. Keeping the trip a surprise was worth it just to see Hunter's face.

Oh my! Your poor friend. Those are the kinds of situations where you just kick it into survival mode and figure out what to do.

As you can see from the pictures, the food at Rose & Crown looks good. But, it was just so bland. Maybe I should have put some of our Louisiana Tabasco sauce in my backpack.

Sounds like you had a great time making your way around the World Showcase. It's our FAVORITE part of Epcot!

Sorry you weren't impressed with Rose and Crown. That's kind of disappointing considering it was your anniversary dinner.

Great pics of Hunter in the sombrero...too cute!

Did Mark call on your honeymoon too?? Goodness! LOL!

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I hate that I didn't have more pictures to share as we went around World Showcase. I would have remembered more if I had pictures. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Thank goodness John didn't know Mark back when we got married and went on our honeymoon! Funny story though. We were just 18 when we got married and didn't have much money. Our honeymoon was spent in Hot Springs and Petit Jean, Arkansas which is about 4 hours from our house. We were shopping in one of the little shops, turn around and there's one of John's friends from work. Unbelievable!

I, too, was glad that there were no more mishaps on this day. At dinner time, I didn't bite down on anything with my front teeth. I pulled my bread apart and I cut my meat into little pieces just in case. I did have my trusty super glue handy though.

The Rose & Crown isn't a character meal. Like I said, we weren't overly impressed but at least we can say we tried it.

We love Illuminations and it's a not to be missed on our list of things to do. (which doesn't include: 1) get stuck on attraction; 2) pee on one self, etc. etc. ) We usually spend two days in Epcot and it doesn't bother us if we miss seeing it on one of those days. On this trip, we had just one day in Epcot so we had to make the time.

I planned our whole 2009 trip around Fantasmic because it is only showing on certain days. It's also on our must sees.

Both of my kids started off looking like their daddy. A lot like their daddy but as they get older, they are looking more and more like me. Bless their punkin' hearts. I have always been little but right before this trip, I lost 18 pounds. It wasn't because I wanted to though.

You'll remember that I said I changed jobs. It was super stressful on me because I had worked for the same firm for 25 years and I considered the people there my family. But, I knew that something wasn't right when certain things started happening around the office and I kept hearing bits and pieces of telephone conversations. After a couple of anonymous calls made by a certain someone (insert...me) to certain offices (you can probably figure out who to insert), I found out that a certain Uncle (he wants you) was gonna come a knockin' on the office door real soon and it wasn't going to be pleasant. After many weeks of counseling at our church, discussions with my husband and many sleepless nights, I knew I had to get out of there or I was going down with the ship too. Hey I ain't the captain! I'm just swab the deck! So, I jumped overboard! Since the change in jobs, I have gained back the 18 pounds and am back to my old self.

Anywhoo! Sorry for the sob story but sometimes, I still get sad and p.o.'d about the whole thing and I have to vent.

I'll try to get our next day posted soon. Hollywood Studios!

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Vent away! That's what we're here for! I don't blame you: I'd have jumped ship, too. No way would I have went down.

When we went to Disney in March, I went with my parents, sister & niece, no DH to keep me sane. He decided not to go (bummer that I could never convert him). These guys have been countless, countless times, so I just kind of did what they wanted to do, when they wanted to do it. Since they've been so many times, they've seen Illuminations and Fantasmic more times than they care to, I guess, because it wasn't big on their list. Actually, they spent more time eating and snacking and lounging around the room than they spent in the park.

Yes, you can get more done at night after the crowds have dispersed, but I only get to go once a year, so I like to spend a better part of the day IN THE PARKS! Crowded or not. And DS4 had a bit of trouble while in Disney, hence the title on my TR link. I just think in the end it was too much stopping and eating and not enough fun.

Vent away! That's what we're here for! I don't blame you: I'd have jumped ship, too. No way would I have went down.

When we went to Disney in March, I went with my parents, sister & niece, no DH to keep me sane. He decided not to go (bummer that I could never convert him). These guys have been countless, countless times, so I just kind of did what they wanted to do, when they wanted to do it. Since they've been so many times, they've seen Illuminations and Fantasmic more times than they care to, I guess, because it wasn't big on their list. Actually, they spent more time eating and snacking and lounging around the room than they spent in the park.

Yes, you can get more done at night after the crowds have dispersed, but I only get to go once a year, so I like to spend a better part of the day IN THE PARKS! Crowded or not. And DS4 had a bit of trouble while in Disney, hence the title on my TR link. I just think in the end it was too much stopping and eating and not enough fun.

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Thanks for letting me vent. Every once and a while it feels good to.

The only bad thing about going to Disney with other people is you feel obligated to do everything with them and change your usual schedule around to fit in what they want to do. My sister and niece went with us once and John sworn we'd never go with them again. All they did was talk about going back to the room (this was when we stayed offsite) and how tired they were and couldn't we just come back and see this part later. Ugh!

When we get to our room, we just drop our bags and go, go, go. We are usually in the park from sun up to way past sun down. And that's just perfect for us!

I don't think I could ever see Illuminations or Fantasmic too many times. The parades are a different story. Especially the day time parades. We see them once per trip and that's enough for me. If we miss them, we aren't super bummed about it.

How did you find the buses and walking around the resort? We have a pirates room and I'm hearing horror stories of how far it is and how bad the buses are there.

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We never ever had a bad experience with the CBR buses. They were very efficient and we never had to wait long at all. I think our longest wait was the day my husband decided he'd sleep in while we went to Animal Kingdom. Around lunch time, he was ready to come meet us at the park and he wanted on a bus for 30 minutes. But, it wasn't during peak travel time and he didn't know that he could pick up the phone in the bus stop and complain.

I actually timed our walk from Trinidad South where the pirate rooms are and it took me just 6 1/2 minutes to make it to Old Port Royale. That was at a pretty leisurely pace too, not my usual fast walk.

Let me see if I can help you put the size of the resort into perspective. The resort is made up of villages which surround a lake. There is a promenade that goes around the entire lake. The promenade is 1.4 miles long. Old Port Royale food court, main pool, store) is located just about in the middle of the promenade. So, even if you were in one of the furthest buildings, your walk will never be more than roughly 1/2 of 1.4 miles. That's not bad at all.

If you have more CBR questions, feel free to ask. We've stayed there three times and love it!

The only bad thing about going to Disney with other people is you feel obligated to do everything with them and change your usual schedule around to fit in what they want to do. My sister and niece went with us once and John sworn we'd never go with them again. All they did was talk about going back to the room (this was when we stayed offsite) and how tired they were and couldn't we just come back and see this part later. Ugh!

When we get to our room, we just drop our bags and go, go, go. We are usually in the park from sun up to way past sun down. And that's just perfect for us!

I don't think I could ever see Illuminations or Fantasmic too many times. The parades are a different story. Especially the day time parades. We see them once per trip and that's enough for me. If we miss them, we aren't super bummed about it.

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See, I could do Disney with you guys!

I want to be there from open to close, and maybe a small break in between if I'm stayin onsite, but that's a stretch. I could go all day! And I believe DS4 could handle that too, but he's old enough to know that swimming and eating are keeping him from the parks and that's where he wanted to be also. And how disappointing to get to the park at long forever last, and be told that we were stopping for a snack before we rode any rides!

That trip was fun, but it was also a nightmare in a way.

Disney can be done in so many ways - I just prefer the fast track. And then for some, it just isn't their thing (like my DH, I'm sorry to say )

I want to be there from open to close, and maybe a small break in between if I'm stayin onsite, but that's a stretch. I could go all day! And I believe DS4 could handle that too, but he's old enough to know that swimming and eating are keeping him from the parks and that's where he wanted to be also. And how disappointing to get to the park at long forever last, and be told that we were stopping for a snack before we rode any rides!

That trip was fun, but it was also a nightmare in a way.

Disney can be done in so many ways - I just prefer the fast track. And then for some, it just isn't their thing (like my DH, I'm sorry to say )

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Because of John's epilepsy and the amount of meds that he has to take a day (we're down to 31 now), he sometimes lags in the morning. No worries! I just leave him and he can meet up with us later. Is that bad? Nah. Especially, when he doesn't have a problem with it.

I want to go, go, go and Hunter does to. Every year, I say, we'll just spend some down time and relax by the pool. But, when we tried that, I found myself wanting to get up and go somewhere, anywhere 'cause we're in Disney!

Looks like a good ending to a great day! We became one of "those" families who takes pictures in the hats. I figure it saves us bundles of cash! DDs can have the picture and I don't have to have a hat here at the house that they will never wear again except for crazy hat day at school .

We are also another commando family! Last summer, for the first time, I took DDs withOUT DH along for the trip. It was just a quickie 3 day'er (2 in the parks). I tried to take the girls back to the room for a quick dip in the pool. No sooner were they in the pool did they decide they were "boring" (I love it when they misuse that word i.e., "we're boring and want to go back to the Magic Kingdom.") and wanted to go back to the park.

In a few weeks, DDs and I (once again without DH) will be tackling the world for 6 days. I have already warned them that at least ONCE we will be going back to the room so I can do a load of laundry. They're going to "suffer" in the pool and arcade.......

Looks like a good ending to a great day! We became one of "those" families who takes pictures in the hats. I figure it saves us bundles of cash! DDs can have the picture and I don't have to have a hat here at the house that they will never wear again except for crazy hat day at school .

We are also another commando family! Last summer, for the first time, I took DDs withOUT DH along for the trip. It was just a quickie 3 day'er (2 in the parks). I tried to take the girls back to the room for a quick dip in the pool. No sooner were they in the pool did they decide they were "boring" (I love it when they misuse that word i.e., "we're boring and want to go back to the Magic Kingdom.") and wanted to go back to the park.

In a few weeks, DDs and I (once again without DH) will be tackling the world for 6 days. I have already warned them that at least ONCE we will be going back to the room so I can do a load of laundry. They're going to "suffer" in the pool and arcade.......

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For some reason, I just never got into putting the hats on and taking pictures but as you'll see in future posts, I ended up taking lots of pictures with various hats.

As far as commando touring goes, that's us. We do like to build in our breaks during the day but those breaks are in the parks. If we leave the park, we feel like we are missing something. Love the use of "boring"! Hunter used to say "purfuse" instead of "purpose". "Lacey did that on purfuse!"

I hope that you guys have a wonderful trip. I wish my ticker was on just a few weeks.

I love the Illuminations photos. Sorry to hear dinner at the Rose and Crown wasn't what you expected, though. It's always a bummer when that happens at Disney, especially expensive TS meals.

I'm dying to know... how did the shrimp potato chips taste?!

And you have a beautiful family!

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Hooray that you found the report! I wish my fireworks pictures turned out as well as some of the other posted around on these boards. Like I said, the camera was still semi-new and I really didn't know how to fool around with the settings. I just did the "point and shoot" like the commercials say.

I was pretty bummed about our dinner at Rose & Crown. Our bill was around $100.00 and it totally wasn't worth it. As a matter of fact, as soon as we made it back to the room, we were looking through our snacks to see what we could find to eat.

The shrimp flavored chips were disgusting! They had a super strong fishy taste to them which was just overwhelming. We ate them and the other snack items later in the week.

Just read the tooth "episode". OMG! I would be freaking and my family would be laughing too. I have my front tow teeth, but on each side is a bridge so my fear is one or both fall out someday.
I think I saw your sister when I was there in March. She told me my sweatshort was "perdy" and I think she was missing more than 1 front tooth! LOL! And I think her DH forgot to bring along shampoo! LOL!